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Saturday, July 30, 2016

DD: Mexico has a class system based on color of your skin even if it is not discussed or acknowledged in "polite society". The indigenous people of Mexico, who typically have darker skin, are in the bottom class. Even though they were the original inhabitants of Mexico and had an advanced civilization with large cities equal to any in Europe before the Spanish invasion, today they are often looked at as inferior and referred to as Indio's in a derogatory manner by society (and the govt).

There are no dark skinned movie or TV stars, very few politicians, or business leaders that come from this "lower class".

Perhaps if society and the government took a close look at this prison, their views and attitudes toward the indigenous might change.

Mexican jails are generally known for corruption, crime and overcrowded conditions but a penitentiary in the northern border state of Chihuahua offers a contrasting picture.

Some empty beds, zero drug consumption and no bribery are features of the Social Reinsertion Center (Cereso) of Guachochi, where about half the inmates actually turned themselves in.

The 253 prisoners share one identifying characteristic: they all belong to indigenous communities. Most — 181 — are Rarámuri while 66 are Tepehuan, three are Guarojío and two, Pimas.

The state penitentiary began operating in January 2015 and was built to house a population of 100% indigenous inmates. Equipped with a kitchen, an artisan’s workshop, a barn, a bakery and a library, the jail has strict security measures, but there’s seldom a need to enforce them.

Prisoners have guitars and violins that have been given to them to play their traditional music. (Picture by Nadia del Pozo / VICE News

According to official figures, 98% of the inmates are behind bars for homicide and rape, a percentage hard to find in state or federal penitentiaries elsewhere in Mexico.

Friday, July 29, 2016

Morelia,
Michoacán— The Sixth District Judge located in Uruapan decided to modify the
precautionary measure of pretrial detention for 29 Tumbiscatío autodefensas, so
they may be able to continue their criminal proceedings while they are freed if
they meet the five new precautionary measures imposed on them.

Such
measures to be met are:

To
not leave the state

To
not meet with armed groups

Present
themselves to the court to sign once a month

Posting
bail: 120,000 pesos ($6,399 USD)

To
not approach witnesses

In an interview with Cambio
de Michoacán, the lawyer of this group of autodefensas, Ignacio Mendoza
Jiménez, considered bail to be a very high amount of money, so he anticipates a
possible appeal.

He added that he would ask
the governor, Silvano Aureoles Conejo, to give these people the same amount of
compensation (90,000 pesos ($4,799 USD) granted in February to former
autodefensas to have the possibility to start a productive project.

“Let them support the
bond…they are people that don’t have financial resources, who served the state
and were arrested on May 9 when they still had permission from Castillo, even
though he denies it, to be armed,” he said.

The brothers, Kevin Alexis, 19 years of age and Justin, 13 years old, were executed with high powered weapons the past Tuesday afternoon at the Centrica Laguna del Nainari, they were identified as alleged(?) nephews of Emma Coronel, wife of El Chapo Guzman Loera, and daughter of the then Sinaloan Capo, Ines Coronel Barreras.

The youngsters have the surname Coronel Orduno were sons of Sergio Coronel Ibarra, nephew of Nacho Coronel, ex head of the Sinaloa, Juarez, Jalisco and Milenio cartels, who died on 29th of July of 2010 during an operation carried out in Guadalajara, Jalisco.

It would not be accurate to say Tijuana, nor it's almost entirely apathetic overbearing neighbor of San Diego was shocked by the murders of a young couple in Playas De Tijuana, Coronado section last Monday, but it was noticed. Noticed, for their age, their relationship, and facebook pictures showed a smiling, attractive couple in barely in their 20's. They were both students of Universities in Tijuana.

It's easier to self identify with these victims, then the often nameless, bound, tortured, garroted men in dirty urine stained jeans, dumped in Sanchez Tadoaba, or Zona Norte tienderos bleeding out on the sidewalk, before the municipals can close off the scene. It makes for a more impactful tragedy when a picturesque couple is gunned down, while sitting in their vehicle.

It's crucial not to blame the victims, or discount them, which is a technique that is depressingly effective in Mexico, and the US, to emotionally distance themselves from crime, and apply a kind of fatalistic disconnect between the dead, and their own existence. 'Of course they were killed, they were mixed up with narcos'. That's the kind of sentiment expressed all too often.

A sentiment that excuses shocking and demeaning atrocities, teenage girls assaulted, brutalized and dumped in the street, families executed in their homes, 19 year old boys executed in front of their families, a kind of brutal degradation that would seem impossible to justify.

Vianey Ruiz Moreno and Ricardo Moreno Renteria were seated in a car, parked outside a home, last Monday night, in the mid evening. Three .40 caliber bullets struck Ricardo Moreno in the face, neck, and arm, he died on the scene. One bullet entered the temple of Vianey Ruiz, she also died on the scene. 10 shell casings were recovered on the scene. The killing was described as a 'direct, clever attack against the two. There must be some problem here'

Problems like unpaid debts, and old grudges, lost shipments, and broken promises, unreturned phone calls, and drunken confrontations. Power and madness, bloodlust and business.

Zeta Tijuana reports that interviews with members of the family contained allegations the father of Ricardo Moreno had introduced his son to drug trafficking, and he was involved in trafficking to the United States. Reports also indicate the mother of Vianey was kidnapped several years back, and released after paying the random.

Pictures tell us a lot, but they can be deceiving, images that create reactions, which may be more complex then our explanations. His open collared Burberry polo in one picture, her Michael Kors bag in another, her features, which perhaps are surgically enhanced. It's morbid speculation, to analyze the shirt or breast implants of the deceased.... I suppose, but murders and .40 caliber bullets leave this in their wake. Pictures, snapshots, hushed allegations, and very tragic circumstances of death, that leave many questions.

Their was another body found that night in Playas, tossed on the street. Two more last night in Zona Norte, and nearly 500 this year. They all have stories behind them, their is a series of events, conditions, choices, families that put these events in motions, their faces behind the dead, and faces behind the bullets. You can buy dozens of roses for your girlfriend, and traffic drugs with the same hands, you can buy groceries the morning after laying in wait outside a home in Playas, in front of the dark sky, and walk away into the darkness, as blood runs down the Jetta's seats, and the stillness of death lingers in the air, in the streets, throughout a city.

Reporter: Milenio Digital
The Secretary General of the youngster network "X Mexico in Guerrero", Ximena Bernal Vargas, was detained last week with an alleged operator of the cartel of the Beltran Leyva brothers.

The network, Jovenes x Mexico, who are aligned to the PRI, confirmed that Bernal Vargas is a member of this organization; however, the Secretary for women in this entity, Gabriela Bernal Resendiz, affirmed that her sister is not a functionary of anything in the three levels of Government.

"I want to make clear that Ximena doesn't work in the Secretariat that I direct, and as such is not a functionary of anything in the three levels of Government," said Bernal Resendiz in a video published on her face book account.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Ziracuaretiro, Michoacán—
The aftermath of an ambush left at least three policemen dead and eight more wounded
when they were opened fire by armed men at the exit of the municipality of Ziracuaretiro
along the highway to Uruapan.

The incident took place
around 18:00 hours at the height of the gas station El Fresno.

There, members of the Michoacán
Police who were patrolling were gunned down by armed civilians.

After the incident,
paramedics from the Red Cross, Civil Protection and of Search and Rescue were mobilized
to the site.

Shortly after, a strong
operation was implemented by the Mexican Army, federal police, and Ministerial Michoacán
Police to find those responsible.

The bodies of the
fallen policemen were sent to the Forensic Medical Service of Uruapan, 15
minutes from the incident, and to private hospitals in the same area.

During her visit to the United States, the head of the PGR, Arely Gomez, agreed to create a bi-national group to lower the consumption of heroin and fentanyl in both countries.

Reporter: Ruben Mosso
Mexico and the united States agreed the formation of a bi-national group to confront the problem that is occasioning both countries, the consumption of heroin and fentanyl, drugs that have been the cause of many deaths.

The accord was made between the Prosecutor General of the Republic, Arely Gomez Gonzalez, during a working visit she made to Washington, United States.

The bi-national group will be headed in Mexico by the Prosecutor General of the Republic.

Lucio R. Borderland Beat Material from archives, U.S. website and The Guardian

Barrera being extradited to the U.S.

Colombia describes
Barrera “the last of the great capos”….

Dusk was falling in the
evening of 2012 as the ordinary looking
middle-aged man, parked his car opposite the towering white statue of an angel
in the Andean mountain city of San Cristobal near Venezuela's border with
Colombia.

Daniel Barrera walked
the few feet to a bank of public payphones facing the church, picked up the
handset and dialed a number. He had barely begun his conversation when, to the
shock of shopkeepers and passers-by, dozens of armed police appeared - and the
20-year career of the last of the notorious Colombian drug barons was over.

Known simply as
"el Loco" - "the crazy one" - for his for violent mood
swings and ruthless dispatch of rivals, Barrera was captured by Venezuelan
security officers without a fight last week as he telephoned a subordinate to
issue instructions.

"He just shrugged
and had the look of a resigned man who knew his time was up," a street
vendor who witnessed the arrest told The Sunday Telegraph. "The National
Guard pulled up on motorbikes and he surrendered without a struggle. It was over
in no time."

The Venezuelan swoop
was conducted after a months-long monitoring operation in coordination with
Colombia, Britain's MI6 and American
intelligence, an indication of the depth
of concerns about Barrera's kingpin status trafficking cocaine to the US and
Europe.

He has been described
as the trafficker “most like Pablo Escobar”, and one who had elected to change
his appearance through plastic surgery, and altering his fingerprints by using
acid.

The Colombian, 48,
eventually pleaded guilty to charges by
the United States, and on Monday a Manhattan judge, Gregory Woods, described
Barrera’s crimes “staggering”, sentenced Barrera to 35 years in prison.

Judge Woods rejected
Barrera’s defense plea for leniency. The
leniency please was centered on the guilty plea, offer of cooperation.

The sentence also
included a 10 million dollar forfeiture in addition to a 10M dollar fine.

U.S. prosecutors
contend that Barrera had shipped, tons of cocaine to the United States, in a massive drug trafficking operation. The operation trafficked drugs to four
continents using narco subs to transport the product.

Monday, July 25, 2016

Police were on patrol in San Juan Chamula Chiapas after the mayor there was shot on Saturday

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The mayor of a town in one of Mexico’s most
violent drug corridors was shot to death, the second mayor killed in
Mexico over the weekend.

Ambrosio Soto was mayor of a township that includes Ciudad
Altamirano, a known haven for drug traffickers in southern Guerrero
state.

Roberto Alvarez, spokesman for southern Guerrero state, said Sunday
that gunmen blocked a highway just over the state line in neighboring
Michoacan state with pickup trucks and opened fire on the mayor’s
vehicle late Saturday. He said two federal officers serving as Soto’s
bodyguards were wounded in the attack.

Soto had received threats and was under protection from federal
police. A local drug gang had reportedly threatened him because he
refused to turn over part of the city budget as a protection payment.

In recent years, business owners in Ciudad Altamirano say they have
been forced to pay extortion to the Knights Templar drug cartel.

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Mexico's government is studying a request to place imprisoned
86-year-old drug lord Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo under house arrest, an
official said Saturday.

Fonseca Carrillo, who is also known as "Don Neto," is considered one of
the founders of modern Mexican drug trafficking. He is serving a 40-year
sentence for the 1985 slaying of Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena.

A federal official who was not authorized to be quoted by name said the
government is "analyzing the legal aspects of the possibility" of
allowing him to serve out his sentence under house arrest. He is
currently being held at a top-security prison in the western state of
Jalisco.

Mexican courts have said Fonseca Carrillo is eligible for the program, as are other aged or ill inmates.

His age has been a matter of debate, but most sources believe he was born in 1930.

On a videotaped interview with Proceso, Rafael Caro Quintero says he did not kill Enrique Camarena and says he was "in the wrong place." He apologizes to the Mexican people, the DEA and the US government and says: "I am not at war with anyone; El Chapo and Mayo are my friends. " He says he was devoted to planting marijuana because "somehow we had to survive."

The waiting went somewhere in northern Mexico. It was an afternoon with a storm on the way. Suddenly, just like a ghost, he appears walking with relaxed pace. Dark skin and calloused hands. Under the blue cap short dyed hair. It shows a perfect and shiny teeth and thin body.

Rafael Caro Quintero is, nicknamed The Prince or Narco of Narcos. For his capture, the US government is offering a reward of 5 million dollars. And in Mexico has accused him of have been reinstated in drug trafficking and to unleash a war against the Sinaloa Cartel.

He has on his chest at least two scapulars, one of the Virgin of San Juan de los Lagos, a gift from one of its sons, and one with a blessing from his mother. Wears long-sleeved shirt, buttoned almost to the neck and jeans. On his left wrist a black dial watch. No jewelry, luxury or weapons; his bodyguard seems to be composed of only two men. His shoes are black and the soles are visibly worn. They seem the exact metaphor of someone who flees from justice for almost three years.

After 28 years in prison in August 2013 it was released from the Detention of Guadalajara by a collegiate court orders. But days after the Attorney General's Office (PGR) obtained two arrest warrants against him: one to extradite him to the United States and another to do 12 more years in prison, according to the PGR, they remain pending in Mexico.

Saturday, July 23, 2016

The Tamaulipas
Coordination Group (GCT) reported that the vehicles in which five people tried
to flee in the municipality of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Tamaulipas, were gunned down
by members of the Mexican Navy and exploded, burning the passengers.

According to the
agency, the five were alleged kidnappers who opened fire against the marines
after being caught throwing the lifeless body of a man on a road leading from
the town of Valadeces to the common land of Lucio Blanco.

A pickup truck and a
Mercury Grand Marquis were used for the escape of the five men, which lasted a
few meters, and after a shootout, were burned completely, around 12:45 hours of
this past Friday.

The Mexican Marines opened
fire in defense of their lives, said the GCT.

None of the bodies have
been identified.

Full text of the
statement:

Announcement from the
Tamaulipas Coordination Group

July, 22, 2016

Ciudad Victoria,
Tamaulipas— The Tamaulipas Coordination Group reports that on Friday, July 22,
in a village in the municipality of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, at least five suspected
kidnappers were died burned after the two vehicles in which they tried to
escape burst into flames.

The no deceased, still unidentified,
were surprised by members of the Mexican Navy when they were throwing the
lifeless body of a man who had been killed, this occurred on a road leading
from the village of Valadeces to the common land of Lucio Blanco.

Realizing the presence of
the marines, the suspects opened fire and tried to escape in a pickup truck and
a Mercury Grand Marquis, starting a chase that lasted a few meters.

Navy personnel repelled
the attack in defense of their lives and when they tried to intercept the two
vehicles, they exploded and burned completely, which killed the attackers.

The incident occurred
shortly after 12:45 hours.The victim of
the kidnappers has not been identified, but it was a young man who was
handcuffed and had several bullet wounds on his body.